Of Secret Service and Superheroes
by ellabellbee
Summary: Pete and Myka investigate what happened during the battle of New York, while Steve and Claudia check out some very weird bank robberies. Mrs. Frederic is being more mysterious than usual, Artie is hiding something, and who is this guy "Fury" that everyone is talking about? Plus, Pete actually gets to meet a superhero, and Claudia meets Jarvis. Kind of.
1. Chapter 1

**For the purposes of this fic, we have to pretend that in the Captain America comic books that clearly exist in Pete's world there was no mention of SHIELD, the Hydra weapons, the Cosmic Cube, or any of the other characters that are in _our_ comics. Also: I don't know _anything_ about hacking, and it's frustrating to write a crossover where two people are named Steve. Huh.**

**This was written for shinealightonme for the xover_exchange over at LJ. Originally posted at the LJ comm, on AO3, and my LJ in February/March. Thank you to perdiccas (and aurilly) for being GREAT exchange hosts and looking over my fic before posting, and Mizzy for not going crazy with how long I can ramble without punctuation. Betas are AWESOME. (and any remaining mistakes are all mine.)**

* * *

Pete was bouncing like a child, though that wasn't really out of the ordinary. Still, the concept that he was actually going to meet a real, bonifide superhero was something that Myka was going to have to work on letting him accept before they actually _met_ said superheroes, and trying to stifle his excitement now? Well, it was probably better to let him get it out of system.

However painful it may be.

"Do you think that Captain America would sign my collection?" Pete asked Artie. He was obviously doing everything in his power to stay on topic, but this _particular_ topic had Steve and Claudia spiralling too, and Myka knew she could only sit back and watch.

"No!" Artie sputtered out. "This is a _mission_, not a stalking expedition. Snag it, bag it, and tag it, or is that something that you've decided that you don't need to do?"

"I'll do all that," Claudia added eagerly. "Snag, bag, tag, dress up in drag, throw a red flag, and try them at the Hague if it means I can check out one of the Stark R&D labs, puh-lease, Artie, can I go?" she whined. It almost looked like it was going to work too before Myka watched his gaze turn to Steve – who was trying to copy Claudia's puppy dog eyes.

How had Steve still not figured out that _his_ puppy dog eyes yielded the opposite result?

Artie passed out the folders to Myka and Pete (who was now wondering out-loud which issue Captain America would be most likely to sign), and Myka dove into it eagerly. Sure, she wasn't as into all the superhero stuff as it seemed that, well, the rest of her co-workers were, but she _did_ remember the appeal it held when she got to pretend for those few minutes when they were after Charles Atlas's Workout Trunks.

Who was she kidding? That kicked _ass_.

And even though she wasn't bouncing in her spot like Pete, she did know how important this crop of superheroes was to the world's history. She remembered being young in her parents' bookstore, poring over the ancient books and wondering what great acts in her lifetime would be the ones to show up in the history books in the future.

The Battle of New York? That was _definitely_ one of them.

"Artie," Myka drew out as she went through the pages as Pete was now getting Claudia and Steve to take part in some sort of re-enactment involving punching someone in the face. "There's not actually any information here about any type of an artefact, just reports from New York. What are we looking for?"

"Ah, well, yes, that's the interesting part of the assignment. Legend tells us that there was an energy source that disappeared around a thousand years ago. Now, the Warehouse at that time was in the area that's now Cambodia, so they didn't have the resources to track what was going on during the Viking age in Scandinavia and Northern Europe."

Myka smiled as Artie got increasingly excited, his arms waving and his voice rising, and for once Pete didn't interrupt him. She chimed in. "It was a bloody time in that area. The Vikings were focused on exploration, adventure, and trade and the other civilizations viewed them as barbarians. Wars broke out; conquests were made."

"Yes! And a small part of the Norse mythology says that the wars on Earth matched the ones in the sky as the Gods fought beings from one of the other realms, and during the war a _treasure_ was lost." He picked up a book from his desk and brought it over to the table where Myka was, stepping around Steve and Claudia's impromptu can-can line as Pete stood in front of them, his hands on his hips. "Now, notes from my predecessors during World War II chronicled the destruction of a city in Norway in 1942 that held absolutely no strategic or tactical advantage, but the Regents and agents were so focused on protecting knowledge of this Warehouse that they didn't follow up. I think that lost treasure was connected to that city."

"Wait, Artie, I remember something about..." Myka felt a thrill course through her body, one that only comes when she's solving puzzles or putting together theories, and she could barely hold her excitement. "I read in the archives that when the Regents were thinking of moving the Warehouse to India, they felt that they could leave Europe because there was another... family, or – or – society that was protecting other dangerous materials outside of the Warehouse that had the trust of the Regents. The Nazi's must have figured them out and gone after them!"

Artie slapped his hand on the book in excitement again. "And right after that city was destroyed, Agents were sent into Germany to find the source of strange deaths, where the people had seemingly exploded, and there was nothing left of them." Artie sat down and lowered his voice, the way he did when he was truly excited about something. "The same power signature from Germany at that time was observed during the invasion a few months ago. It took some time to analyze, but both Mrs. Frederic and I believe that the same device that opened the portal in the sky was the same one that created the weapons in the forties, and the same one that the legends talked about during the greatest war in Norse history."

Myka considered this silently while the others' voices still carried on around her. "Artie, we need to get that artefact."

He clapped his hands together. "Yes," he almost whispered, seemingly becoming aware again of Pete, Claudia, and Steve, who were now apparently letting Steve have his turn playing the superhero, while Pete played... was he pretending to be Hitler?

Artie's impatience was beginning to rise, but before he could truly get mad at them, Myka turned his attention back to the sheets in front of her. "The battle was waged not just by Captain America and Tony Stark, but it looks like someone from the legends that we were just talking about." She pointed to an included photo of a tall man with long reddish blond hair who happened to be clutching a hammer. She lowered her voice. "Is this really Thor?"

Of course, when she wanted to hide something from Pete lest he get _more_ excited, that was when he started paying attention. "Wait, Thor?" he asked with the giddy anticipation it seemed that only Pete was capable of and it seemed like he was about to actually pay attention – but in a moment that was worthy of the Three Stooges (and probably should not have been funny, but _totally_ was), Steve continued with their play-acting and managed to connect his fist with Pete's jaw.

A moment of stunned silence permeated the room and it looked like Steve was about to apologize before Pete broke out into a huge smile. "Did you see that? That was _awe-some_," he pseudo sang, sticking out his tongue and raising his fingers up in the air. "Just like they used to do on the stages with the real Captain."

And as everyone burst into laughter, whatever that moment was where Pete had found his concentration was lost.

* * *

After Steve had accidentally (well, he can't say for certain that there wasn't a moment where he could've pulled back, but _damn_ was that kind of fun) punched Pete, Artie managed to somehow pull them all back onto task. (Yet, even through all the grumbles, Steve knew there was a genuine smile behind them. Somewhere.)

Steve had paid just enough attention to Artie and Myka talking though to keep up, but was still a little surprised to hear Myka say, "if we're looking into the energy source for these strange weapons, shouldn't we have the guy from ATF with us? And we're going to be talking with people who won't want to give us any information, I presume. Having Steve would be a great help."

He looked up hopefully at Artie, who grumbled again. "No. We need his weapons' experience elsewhere." Steve accepted the folder that Artie was handing to him. "Steve, you and Claudia are going to investigate a number of bank robberies that happened a few weeks ago."

"A few weeks ago?" Claudia interjected. "Why are we just getting this now?"

Artie shrugged. "Sometimes these things take time. Look, I don't know if it's one of ours, but they're using some type of a gun that I've never seen before. There's security footage on my computer, info in the folders."

It was silent as the two of them looked through their folders, and Steve caught the anomaly first. "It says that there's another agency investigating, but there are no notes on which one."

"Well, yes." Artie replied, this time looking a little put out. "Mrs. Frederic came and saw me when I got the ping. She said – she said to tread carefully here, that there may be some other parties involved that we don't want to uh... anger. Or, really know about us." Artie turned to Myka and Pete. "That goes for you guys too."

It was as if a chorus of voices started, all asking the same question just slightly out of sync. "What does that mean, Artie?"

"How do we know who were are supposed to be staying away from –"

"You're a little vague on the details, there, and you're obviously leaving something out –"

"Yeah, right, good advice: don't anger the ones with the scary guns. What's that even supposed to mean –"

"SILENCE!" Artie cried, and they all obliged. "Now, don't you all have packing to do and flights to arrange? Go!" and he ushered them out the door, turning back to the computer. Steve only got a glance at the screen before he left, but he walked away even more confused than when he started.

* * *

Myka had many infuriating plane rides with Pete, but this one was proving to be the worst. And this was a full two days after they had received the assignment, wherein she avoided Pete as much as she could.

While she was poring over a large Norse mythology book (where she was having a lot of fun translating some of the original text and looking up runes), Pete was going out of his way to constantly cover her books on the tiny table with his comics, explaining the history of every character in detail.

Myka thought it sounded a lot like a soap opera. Not that she had ever watched those. Nope. She just... overheard them when Tracy watched them and stray bits of dialogue still circled around her head. She shook her head, brushing away the errant thoughts. "Pete," she interrupted him, while he went on again about how Captain America saved hundreds of men captured by parachuting into the compound, and not caring about the line between fact and fiction – which, Myka reminded herself, she should figure out. "Can you at least pretend to read the mission folder?" she said as she smacked it down on top of his book.

"Mykes!" he cried, scandalized, even though it was the same thing he had been doing all flight, but he reluctantly opened it up and flipped right to the photos. He was silent for a blessed few minutes before he turned back to her, albeit this time with a slightly more serious demeanour. He pointed to the picture that Myka had been studying earlier. "I thought we had Thor's hammer in the Warehouse."

Myka had been prepared to be angry at him, but when he asked a question about the actual _case_ she smiled instead. _There_ was the Pete that was her partner, and not the twelve year old boy on a sugar rush. "I asked Claudia about that. It was collected by Warehouse 8 after it had been found amongst a store of Norse battle gear in what's now northern Germany, but it belonged to Denmark for a long time. There was city there called Hedeby which was a trade center... and I've lost you."

"Completely."

She sighed. "Okay. The city was destroyed in 1066. There were brave warriors. Rumour was that one even had the bravery of Thor and was dedicated to protecting mankind. Whether his actions imbibed the Hammer with its properties or the Hammer was giving _him_ those qualities, it's unknown. What we do know is that the one in the Warehouse is only a mere shadow of the real one."

"And what does the one we have do?"

"It gives you strength and you can control lightening when there's already a storm."

"Cool! What's its downside?"

"You know how Thor's supposed to be the only one worthy to use the hammer?" She waited for Pete's nod. "This one you can literally not put down. You will be the only one to use it until you die, unless it manages to get neutralized."

"That's one hell of a downside."

"Yeah." She turned back to her notes, but sure enough Pete was ready with more questions – though the case related ones she liked, even if she still gave him her exasperated look.

"Who are these other people fighting? I mean, we've heard of the Hulk and everyone knows Iron Man, but who are these other two?"

Myka considered them. The girl's fiery red hair stuck out in each photo, but she had to look for the one that was using a bow and arrow. "I don't know. I talked to Artie before we left, and he said that Mrs. Frederic didn't want us concerned with them. Just the energy source. That's it."

Pete seemed to consider this. "Mykes, what are they not telling us?"

She shook her head. "I don't know Pete, but that's the best question that's been asked since we started this."

* * *

They had been at this for two days already, and they weren't getting any closer to whoever was robbing the banks. Each place they went to told the same story: two people came and blasted a piece of furniture before stealing the money and getting out. No fatalities. No injuries. One eye witness account even said that the male had comforted an elderly lady during the robbery.

This was not their average mission. If it was even supposed to be one of theirs.

Claudia sighed. There was only one bank left to see and they were getting there early this morning in Savannah, Georgia. That attack had happened a week after the first two and she believed that the story would be the same: eye witness accounts that differed, no video, protests that someone else already taken the videos, and no information if it was actually an artefact that was doing it, or just a fancy new gun.

And up until now, they hadn't even really had time to rest or process what they were actually looking for.

But for now, they were on a plane at some ungodly hour, waiting for a backlog at the gates or something. Claudia had already been woken up, and she was getting restless. "What do you think about Pete and Myka's case?" she asked Steve, and he stared blankly at her. "I mean, I know we were all excited about superheroes and stuff, but the truth is, we haven't actually talked about the real thing they're looking into, right?"

Steve rubbed his face. "You mean that there are aliens?"

"Yeah. I mean, it doesn't really surprise me, but –"

"It didn't surprise you?" He looked confused at her statement.

"What, you mean that you _were_ surprised? Jinksy, look at our jobs. My brother disappeared into an interdimensional portal for twelve years and came out looking the same age. You can tell when people are lying. The fact that Norse myths are true? Not exactly hitting eleven on my weird-o-meter."

"Yeah, but _aliens_?"

"Well, I don't think they're _quite_ the little green men we thought they'd be. But sure. Things that live elsewhere. Need an energy source or artefact to get here. I'm just saying that it feels like Monday."

Steve shrugged, as if he still hadn't made up his mind on whether to be scared about them or not. "I'm more impressed with the way the world is reacting to the news."

"What does Artie always say? The mind's ability to make sense of the blah, blah, whatever."

Steve smirked, and Claudia took pleasure in the fact that he finally smiled. "Speaking of Artie, does he have any more input on this? Who's this mysterious government agency that's been taking all copies of the robberies?"

"I talked to him last night. He just keeps saying that Mrs. Frederic wants us to be careful. That's it."

"There is something seriously weird about this case."

Claudia smirked as the seatbelt sign finally turned off and she was able to gather her stuff. "Isn't there always?"

* * *

They stood outside the door of the conference room set up in Stark Tower on one of the more public floors, and Myka shot him a glance. "Hey, I'm cool," he said, with an exaggerated flail of the arms. "Completely professional!"

She smirked at him and raised an eyebrow, and he broke out into a wide grin. That was the Myka he knew and loved. She had been so involved in those books on the plane that he had been worried about her taking this mission too seriously. So, he had been doing everything in his power to pull that sarcastic and fun side out of her again.

He gingerly adjusted his jaw where Steve had hit him earlier, exaggerating his movement to get Myka's attention, and he saw her smile again. Sure, it was a mere shadow of what he might have seen last year at this time, but when she had outright laughed when Steve's fist connected? That was what made him all warm and gooey inside.

Honestly, she needed so much taking care of.

He didn't give her another chance to chastise him and he walked into the room, flashing his badge at the man sitting alone at the head of the table. "I'm Agent Lattimer, this is Agent Bearing, and I suppose you're Captain America?"

"Steve Rogers," the man introduced himself, standing up and reaching a few inches above them. While Pete could tell he was very well built and strong, the man himself was unassuming. He was dressed in a pair of worn jeans and a button down plaid shirt with a grey tee showing underneath at the collar. "But you can understand why my real name is mostly classified."

"Of course," Myka replied, shaking his hand and Pete did the same. While Myka spoke, he assessed the man. While he couldn't control his vibes on command, there was nothing disturbing about this guy. He was radiating pure goodness. "I see you were told we were coming?"

"I was," he replied, and Pete and Myka took seats on one side of the table when he sat down. "But I haven't been told why. After the events of that day we held a joint conference to answer the questions posed by all agencies. I believe you've seen the tape that was both classified and archived. Secret Service was definitely at that day's sessions."

Pete exchanged a look with Myka. In an effort to both limit the information that the so called "Avengers" were letting out, and putting all agencies on the same footing, they had forced everyone into the same room. They could ask their questions so that all agencies had the same information, or keep it to themselves. It was tactically a brilliant move on their part, and they had only put Tony Stark and Captain America in front of everyone, keeping all the other identities a secret. Also, apparently, they were the first agents to be allowed a secondary and private access to any one of the Avengers.

Myka smiled calmingly. "We have a few follow up questions that didn't align with everyone else's clearance level."

As soon as he nodded, Myka started bringing him through the questions they had prepared on the second half of the plane ride. They brought him through the brief history of the super soldier project, some questions about his former missions, and even his history. They were searching for his knowledge of the blue energy source – of the weapons made from it – but if he knew anything, he wasn't volunteering it. "This was all covered in the other briefing, Agents," Steve said, finally growing a little impatient. "Was there something new you wanted to discuss? I don't have much time; I have an event I have to go to later."

Pete took over, keeping it light just like Artie wanted, but he could see the man appreciated directness. "We heard some stories about some futuristic type weapons that you might have come into contact with."

Pete saw the change in the Captain's demeanour immediately, and he knew that Myka saw it too, but Steve was doing a good job of hiding it. "Futuristic?" he asked, trying for puzzlement. "I'm from the past; everything here looks futuristic to me."

Pete expected Myka to take the next question, but she was strangely silent so he continued. "Yeah, but something maybe, super advanced? Maybe something that you ran into back then that still hasn't really been used today?"

Pete could feel Steve studying him, and when he spoke again it wasn't so much like he was trying to hide something, just that he sounded genuinely sad. "Look. Fitting into this world is hard. It's not the same one I left when I went into the ice, and yet it couldn't be more similar. There are still people ill-suited for power that will do anything to get it. There are people who want to take advantage of those less fortunate. The world is still war, and we're not fighting the right ones. I don't want _more_ weapons, no matter how futuristic they may be, or for what purpose you may want to use them."

Pete almost wanted to interrupt – to tell him that they didn't want to use the weapons, they wanted to stop them – but the passion and dissonance in Steve's voice held him off.

"Everything that ever mattered in my life is gone now except the costume and the will to honest-to-god _help_ people, and I'm not going to help _any_ government agency that wants to know about futuristic weapons." He paused, and Pete had to remind himself to close his mouth. "Besides, I don't know what you're talking about."

He folded his arms in front of him in the universal defensive position, but then his facial expression changed and Pete followed Steve's gaze to Myka. Right. He couldn't believe that he didn't put together the pieces before. A man out of his time, leaving everything from before behind...

Pete was trying to formulate a plan in his head to either make her laugh or get her out of the room, when he was saved by a familiar buzzing coming from Myka's pocket. It rang twice before she shook her head, as if she was pulling herself back to the present, and let out a deep breath while pulling at her hair.

"Hey," he said quietly. "You go get that, I'm good here." She nodded and took the Farnsworth outside.

Steve's brow furrowed. "Is she okay?"

Pete forced a smile. "She'll be fine." He couldn't explain it and he awkwardly realized that he didn't actually have a continued line of questioning that he wanted to pursue without Myka's input, so he instead went for distraction and took advantage the moment alone. With a moment of mood-whiplash that even Pete was aware of, he exclaimed, "So, is there any chance you could sign one of my comic books?" Pete gave his most winning smile and felt relief when Steve responded with a shy one. "I grew up with them, and it would just be so cool –"

"Sure," he agreed, suddenly more amicable and Pete almost started to ramble when he pulled himself back. Right. Professional. And the Captain had just made quite the passionate speech that he was trying to honour, but he could not contain his squeal of delight when the book was passed back over to him. It was only silent for a second before Steve asked him some questions about his collection, and he seemed genuinely interested.

Pete was in his glory for about three minutes, which is when Myka came back into the room with a slightly elongated stride and a serious look on her face.

"It seems that you haven't been completely honest with us, Steve," she said, with just a touch of malice. "Now, what is SHIELD, and what do they want with guns that shoot blue energy?"

Pete watched Steve's face drain of colour, and he stood up abruptly. "If you don't know who SHIELD is, then you should check your clearance level. And this interview? It's done."

And with that he left the room, leaving the two of them sitting there stunned. "Well," Pete said at length. "I didn't see _that_ coming."


	2. Chapter 2

Calling Myka instead of Artie had been the right thing to do from Claudia's perspective, and it looked like Myka needed the break as well. Claudia had relayed the facts from their case to her while standing in the hotel with the giant hole between rooms, pointing out that destruction. "I don't know if this is an artefact, but Steve's never seen a weapon do anything like this, other than from some of the pics of in New York."

"Did you get the footage from the security cameras at the banks?"

"Not at first. Apparently another agency had already come through and confiscated it all. They said FBI, but there's no record of it on the FBI servers. Luckily," Claudia paused and she turned the Farnsworth to her laptop and pressed play. "One of the bank managers had made a private copy that they didn't find."

"Claud, did you tell Artie about this?"

"He's being an extra bit of Puddleglum this case. Any idea what gives?"

"No, he just keeps telling me to be careful." She was silent and Claudia brought the Farnsworth back up to her face. Myka had her thinking expression on. "Claud, what colour was the light coming from the gun?"

"An icy blue, kind of?"

Myka nodded, as if that was exactly the answer she was looking for. "I think our cases are linked. Do you have a name for the agent doing the investigating?"

Claudia reached for the name, but she heard Jinksy shuffling behind her, and he poked his head over her shoulder to see the Farnsworth. "Agent Sitwell. Never heard of him."

"Wait!" Myka exclaimed and she kind of looked up the way that she did when she's scrolling through the information in her head. "There was an Agent Sitwell on the list that attended the... the conference with the Avengers last week, but there was no organization listed beside his name, and he was the only one."

Steve chimed in again. "Right before we left I saw Artie looking at something called SHIELD. Does that mean anything to you?" Myka shook her head. "I think it might have had the word _Homeland_ in its title."

Myka nodded. "If you guys have all you can get down there, fly to New York. I think there's something big going on here." And with that, Claudia watched the screen go dark.

"Whatdya think, Jinksy? Wanna go take a bite out of the Big Apple?"

* * *

Claudia and Steve were checked into the hotel by five, and despite Claudia's best efforts, everyone had taken up residence in her room. "So, he said he had an event to go to?"

Myka nodded. "Anything?"

Her laptop was already in front of her and her fingers flew over the keyboard. "Nothing for Captain America, but Tony Stark is hosting a fundraiser tonight for the downtown clean up."

Pete looked excited. "Hey, we should try to go to that, see if Mr. Rogers talks to anyone about our visit."

Myka rolled her eyes. "They know who we are. We'll never get close. But Claudia..."

"What? No. Uh, spying? Not exactly in my wheelhouse. But there'll be too many signals to sort through, so I'm not that much good to you here either. I can, uh, get Steve on the invite list, but I won't fit in so..."

She could see that Pete and Steve were about to chime in with encouragement, but Myka cut them off. "No, she's right. We don't have enough time for hair and make-up, never mind a dress."

Claudia checked a few things on her computer. "I can get in with the wait-staff. And Steve, there's a tux rental place a block over." She shook her head. "I guess we're going to a party."

* * *

They had been there for an hour, and no sight of Stark or Rogers yet. Steve circled back around to where Claudia was standing with a tray of champagne, and took another one. He had been leaving the full glasses on random high tables all around the place, pausing to mingle and investigate, but no one had really piqued his interest.

He _was_ starting to get tired of all the small talk, though. All the lying was giving him a headache.

"I wish you could be out here with me, it would make this so much more fun."

"Just take the glass and get going. You can't be seen here with me!"

For all the experience that Claudia _did_ have as an agent, she certainly was jittery when she was forced to be undercover. He was about to make fun of her when a stunning woman appeared on a stage and took over the microphone, interrupting the live band.

Steve finally recognized her as Pepper Potts, and she made the usual sort of speech that one would expect from a charity event organizer. She thanked everyone for coming and talked a little about the rebuilding efforts, and without even having to talk about it, Steve and Claudia started making their way closer to the stage as to follow her when she finished. Chances were she was going to find her way back to Tony, and then maybe to Captain America.

They found the two they were looking for even before they got to the stage, and with a nod from him Claudia went over to offer them a drink, hoping to hear anything they were talking about.

When she returned (with two less drinks), she said, "They were talking about Pete and Myka all right. Rogers seems agitated, but Stark doesn't care. They seemed to be waiting for someone else, though, who would give more insight – though when Rogers said that, Stark laughed. I don't know why, and then they stopped talking."

Steve nodded and smirked. "Stay close, I'm going in." And he gave his best secret-agent look at her, and when he winked, she rolled her eyes.

Holding his glass, he edged closer to them as if he was vying for a better view of the stage. He could hear them quite well now, but the downside of his ability was kicking in – he couldn't actually see their faces, so he had no idea if they were lying. Even though he had no reason to believe they would lie to each other, he itched to get a closer look.

"You sure they said Secret Service?" Stark asked, flipping through his phone. "These them?" Steve glanced at them to see Stark flash his phone and Rogers nod. "Yep, Secret Service. Dropped off the radar about three years ago, both of them."

"And they were asking questions about the Tesseract and Hydra Weapons."

Steve chanced another glance, and was startled to see Stark look worried. "Well, you know what Fury said about being ready for whatever comes; maybe these guys just want the same thing. If they want something, let them go through SHIELD."

Steve couldn't make heads or tails of their conversation, but he knew that it was coming to a close and he should move on. He was just about past them when he heard Rogers say, "If they come again, I'm calling Fury."

He circled around and joined Claudia near the kitchen doors, relaying he heard, and Claudia looked thoughtful. "I know I've heard of Hydra before..." she trailed off before pulling out her Farsworth, and Leena's face came up.

Claudia relayed Steve's info over to her in a weird game of telephone, but when she was done Leena looked concerned. "You've heard of Hydra before because we have some of their research and prototypes here. Claudia, the only weapon that has ever worked after they were taken in World War II is kept in the dark vault."

Steve and Claudia looked at each other in horror. They needed to get this info back to the others, stat.

* * *

Pete, Myka, and Steve were now in Steve's room going over whatever information they could find about whatever it was they uncovered tonight, and while Artie was being elusive, Leena was providing them with research on the Hydra Weapons that they had in the Warehouse. The little that Claudia heard before she separated told her that they _really_ couldn't afford that technology getting into the wrong hands. It didn't really sound like they belong in the Warehouse – it sounded just like advanced technology, not an artefact – but then Leena said that they periodically turned on, all on their own.

Not Claudia's idea of a good time.

So, as they were winding down while in full research mode, she was starting to ramp up. She pulled out her laptop and her fingers started flying over the keys as she sat cross-legged on the bed, the glow from the computer screen taking over the room.

Her first objective was to find out who SHIELD was (something that Leena couldn't help with at all), but she really didn't have a place to start – she had no idea what type of organization they were or where they could possibly even have their servers. It's not like they even had a website.

She visited some of the conspiracy forums (that often have more truth in them than any of the posters would ever actually want to know about) but other than a few mentions of a shadowy organization hiding in plain sight that had oversight of the superheroes, there wasn't much to go on.

She rubbed her hands over her face. Okay. Objective number two: put the four of them on the schedule for a meeting at Stark Tower tomorrow to get access to the internal servers if she couldn't get them from out here, and see if she could get in touch with Captain America again or Tony Stark. Hopefully one of them had a lead into SHIELD that they could follow, either into what happened to this mysterious blue artefact or how it was powering all these weapons.

At least with her second project she had a starting point – when she found out that Myka and Pete were heading to Stark Tower, she sent a bunch of emails to people in the top levels of Stark Industries, hoping that one of them would email her back so she could trace the path that the email took. As luck would have it, Tony's girlfriend and Stark guru herself answered some questions she asked while posing as a woman's studies and journalism major from... some university.

She almost didn't want to take advantage of the woman with the spicy name that seemed so gracious on stage tonight, but... she shrugged and went back to the software she wrote to track the thing.

She watched as her command screen scrolled through code, coming back with decision prompts based on the data she was getting. She wrinkled her nose. Some of the things that the data was producing was... odd.

Her fingers flew back over the keyboard, but it seemed like for every door she opened into the Stark servers, another new one came up behind it. "A challenge... I salute you," she murmured to herself as the code spun on, making alterations and adjustments as they were needed. Even when she was hacking her way into the warehouse, though, did she require so much quick thinking.

She stopped and sat back against the headboard, and took a quick glance at the clock. She had already been at this for hours. As she went back through the moves she made in her mind, an errant thought wandered through that caught her attention. On all of the hacking forums that she frequented, one rumour repeated far more than any other one; that Tony Stark had a real and functioning AI.

She had always dismissed the thought (her own experience with Hugo made her wary, but she knew that if anyone could accomplish it, it was Stark.)

A prompt came up in her code and she stared at the blinking light. If her current line of thinking was right...

She leaned back forward and closed down the program she was running, leaving the command screen open where she left it. She was still linked in to where she stopped, and she acted on impulse. _Hello, my name is Claudia. Who are you?_ she typed, and held her breath at the cursor as she waited.

She wasn't sure if she wanted it to answer or not, or if she was relieved or scared when it did. _I'm JARVIS. I am Tony's security system and aid. Why are you trying to find your way into the internal system at Stark Industries?"_

Claudia hesitated. She was both internally squeeing and hyperventilating, but the part of her brain that was still functioning was telling her to not get too excited – that this could be a trap, or a clever manipulation. She took a deep breath, trying to breath out the excitement that coursed through her veins and surprise that something actually answered her back when she typed.

She was in it now, whatever it was, and she bet that the AI would be tracking for her or anything else that might go awry now that she had alerted the security system to her presence, despite how polite he seemed to be. _I'd like an appointment with Tony Stark, party of four?_ she finally typed, settling somewhere near the truth. _Can you put me on the calendar for tomorrow?"_

She squeezed her eyes shut with anticipation, and when she looked for the response, it was there. _Does 9:30 AM work?_

* * *

Pete wasn't sure that Claudia did the right thing after she explained it all to him, but he also couldn't really think of a better way to handle chatting with a robot. Because it was a _robot_. Or something. Claudia had yelled at him when he said that earlier.

Still, after researching Hydra weapons and that cube of energy for hours, his brain was bound to feel a little mushy, and that feeling was just starting to wear off after his full night of sleep (while the others continued to research) and the giddy anticipation that he was actually going to meet _Iron Man._

Two superheroes within two days? This job _rocked._

While the four of them stood outside of Stark Towers, he stretched out his senses trying to see if he could get a vibe about what was going to happen when they got in there. He felt nervous, but it was only because they didn't know what they were walking in to. Who knows what the computer was able to find out about them, or what Iron Man might have prepared for the person that had tried to hack into his system. All he _did_ know was that Artie was _not_ in the loop on whatever this thrown together plan was.

And that probably should have been his first clue that something was not quite right with whatever mess that he and Mrs. Fredric had gotten them in. Not that he would ever tell _her_ that.

With a nod from Myka they all walked in, and were immediately met by a tall, thin woman that oozed military training. "If you'll come with me, please?" she commanded more than asked, and with a shrug from him, they followed to whatever was waiting for them at the meeting set up by Claudia and a robot.

Maybe a robot. Possibly a robot.

And if the AI thing that Claud called Jarvis _wasn't_ a robot, when Tony Stark was wearing his Iron Man suit, was _he_ a robot?

Before Pete had a chance to wonder these questions out loud (he was sure that Claudia would have some answers... and if she didn't then at least Myka would have some amusing expressions) they arrived at their destination. Their escort opened the door to a boardroom where Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were waiting for them.

Pete turned to Claudia. "I thought this was a meeting with just Stark."

"Sorry about that," a British, disembodied, slightly mechanical voice answered. "My protocols dictate that Mr. Stark be informed of any attempted intrusion."

Tony scoffed. "And then the boy scout of the year had to call in SHIELD." He waved his hand distractedly while he fiddled with his phone, and then finally looked at his guests. "Which one of you is Claudia? This code is truly stunning work."

Pete watched Claudia's entire face light up. "Really? Because I was thinking that if I started the second subroutine later and used a..." Pete immediately tuned out as the hacker jargon began, and he could see that both Steves echoed his response.

Before they had a chance to spiral further down the geek path, Myka interjected. "Mr. Stark, I'm so sorry that we had to come to you under these conditions. We have a few questions for you."

It was their escort that answered. "And we have a few questions for you. I'm Agent Hill, from SHIELD."

Pete studied the woman while the rest of the introductions occurred. She seemed like the kind of person that would be giving him the wiggins, but she was producing nothing but good vibes. She actually seemed a lot like Myka – good at her job, strong, smart, and exceptionally beautiful without really knowing it. Plus, she was from the elusive SHIELD agency, something they still had no knowledge about.

He believed that they would probably get the most traction talking to her, but before he had a chance to address her directly, Stark chimed in. "So, Secret Service agents. I've dealt with your kind before; want to protect the country and the president, blah blah, and you want my weapons to use against the enemies of our – you know what? You can skip the speech. I'm not giving up my suit, no matter how many times you people ask."

"Hey!" Steve answered, starting to sound a little angry. "We don't want your suit. We're trying to take weapons _off_ the streets, not put more weapons on it." Almost all the voices other than his were entering the fray now, each rising above the other, all accusing the other of using weapons that they don't deserve and shouldn't have.

Pete tried to pick out the individual arguments but only finally interrupted when Stark was getting angry at Agent Hill, yelling at her for getting SHIELD and someone named "Fury" involved.

He had heard that name before, from Steve's briefings but also from somewhere in his Marine days, stories of a guy that would take many of the best soldiers and put them into some sort of secret task force –

"STOP IT!" he finally cried, stopping everyone in their tracks. "Who's Fury?"

Agent Hill gazed down, looking abashed. Captain Rogers averted his eyes, and Stark, well, Stark looked cheeky. "He's the guy that shows up with no warning and glares you into submission." He turned to Hill, and said as an aside, "is it still glares? _Glare_ into submission?" Hill rolled her eyes and he shrugged, turning back to their group. "As Secret Service agents, I'm sure you know what that's like."

"You have no idea."

Just as it seemed that Stark was going to respond with what Pete was sure would be a witty comeback, a booming voice thundered, "And he's the guy that's going to sort this mess out."

Pete turned around to see a tall African-American man wearing a long black trench coat and an _eye patch_ of all things (though, that did explain Stark's confusion earlier on whether to use' glare' or 'glares' earlier) storm into the room. Captain Rogers snapped to attention and so did Agent Hill, and Pete could understand why.

This guy? He meant business.

"Now, what the hell is going on here?"

The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife, and he could feel his throat pounding up near his throat. This was _not_ a guy to mess with.

That didn't mean that Pete wasn't going to try to get away with it anyway.

But before he could get a single word out, an even scarier voice came from the far side of the room, behind where their adversaries stood. "What is going on, Director Fury, is that these are my Agents, and you would do well to answer their questions."

Stark, Rogers, and Hill all turned to the voice curiously, but Pete took great pleasure in Fury's reaction. His spine seemed to straighten for a moment but then his shoulders slumped as if defeated. Pete took the opportunity to be joyous at the sudden arrival. "Mrs. F! Lookin' good! And check you out, popping in to save the day."

His excitement could not have been more ill suited for the moment. The tension from before still ran high, and even though he could see that Fury's agents were bristling with her sudden arrival, they were as freaked out by the woman as he used to be. Uh... mostly still is.

It almost looked for a moment like Fury was going to try to hold Mrs. Frederic's gaze, but after a mere few seconds he surrendered. "What would like to know?"

"The Tesseract?" she asked, her voice direct but still icy.

"In Asguard, where it belongs."

She gave a singular nod. "Item 47?"

His eye squinted, as if concerned that she had that knowledge, but he answered, "Contained."

"The civilians?"

He paused. "Neutralized."

Mrs. Frederic's eyes flickered to Steve and he answered what they all knew already. "Lie."

Her eyes flickered back and she waited, continuing to stare at him. "Recruited."

Steve nodded, and they could tell that Mrs. Frederic continued to study the much larger man that cowered under her gaze. Finally she lowered her head so that she could peer over the top of her glasses. "Good. I expect you will answer any other questions my Agents ask of you." He nodded, and satisfied, she turned to their group again. "Miss Donovan, Mr. Jinks. Please stay and look into Mr. Stark's... security system. Please make sure an event has not happened similar to Mr. Miller's."

Claudia could barely contain her squeal of delight, and Stark looked put-out. Still, he wasn't about to argue with the woman that made _Fury_ cower.

Mrs. Frederic walked through the crowd towards the door, only stopping briefly at Pete and Myka to say, "I will see you at the Warehouse upon your return," before she disappeared.

It was silent for another twenty seconds before they heard Captain America whisper out, "who _was_ that woman?" before Fury started barking out orders, and Pete knew his part of the mission was done.

* * *

Mrs. Frederic watched Pete and Myka's return from the shadows. Arthur was sputtering at them, "I _told_ you to keep a low profile, and what happens? You let _Claudia_ research your case? I separated you for a reason!"

"Artie!" they both exclaimed, properly chastising him for keeping so much from them. "And we still don't even know what SHIELD does!"

Arthur, looking thoroughly exhausted, sank into his chair. "SHIELD is sort of a counterpart to the Warehouse. While we work with artefacts, they often get their hands on technology that is far too advanced to be let out into the world. We don't overlap much, but every once in a while..."

Pete, Myka, and Arthur continued to debate, all talking on top of one another, and it wasn't until Arthur mentioned that he made cookies that they seemed to be amicable with each other once again. With the sound of laugher still both in front of them and behind them, they left the office into the umbilical, not ever noticing she was there.

She stepped into the center of the office and said, "I expect our agents will be seeing more of each other."

The deep, booming voice she knew was behind her answered, "I was hoping to avoid it, but I can't see that being the case."

"As was I, Director Fury. The most we can hope for now is cooperation. I believe Miss Donovan has started to make that connection with your Mr. Stark, though I can only hope for renewed trust. We have quite the history, our two agencies."

She waited for a response, but it appeared he was not willing to give one. He instead circled around to in front of her and nodded his head in respect. "Until the next time the world is about to end, then." He said to her as he exited the Warehouse.

She stared at the door which had just swung closed and then could only lower her head. "I fear that may happen far sooner than either of us anticipates." But with no one to hear her, the warning was left unheeded, and she again moved on to whatever was next.

* * *

** end.**

* * *

**Thanks for reading! And, as always, comments are wonderful, wonderful things.**


End file.
